During this afternoon’s Astros-Phillies game Bill Hall stepped out of the batters’ box to stop from being quick-pitched by Cole Hamels and Hamels responded by throwing the next pitch inside, at which point Zachary Levine of the Houston Chroniclereports that Hall had to be “restrained by home plate umpire Laz Diaz.”

It didn’t go much further than that, as neither bench emptied and both sides were simply issued warnings, but after the game Hall called Hamels “a marked man.”

However, according to Levine it was “not in any sort of way that would imply physical harm, but that he might have taken a little extra delight off the hit he got in his next at-bat.” Hmm.

Here’s more from a very angry Hall:

I don’t know if he was mad because he gave up a homer or if he was mad because the umpire gave me time. But I’m not going to let him speed-pitch me. Obviously, he threw a pitch in, and I’m not going to let him disrespect me either. He kind of said something that I didn’t like too much. It’s over with.

He’s definitely a marked man for me now, so when I do some damage off him, I’m going to let him know I did some damage off him. I can guarantee that. I don’t feel like I do a lot of things to have pitchers mad at me for doing things on the field. I feel like I play the game the right way. But if you disrespect me, I’m going to do my best to disrespect you back. Obviously not in a way to disrespect the game, but obviously I’m going to let him know when I face him.

Hall is just 3-for-22 (.136) with seven strikeouts against Hamels during his career, so if that continues Hall won’t have a whole lot of chances to “let him know I did some damage off him.”

They were expected to activate Harper yesterday but they didn’t because Harper was suffering from an illness. He’s better today so he should be in the lineup against the Phillies.

Harper has been out since August when he slipped on a wet first base bag and was diagnosed with a bone bruise in his left knee. That interrupted an MVP-caliber season in which he was hitting .326/.419/.614 with 29 home runs, 87 RBI, and 92 runs scored in 472 plate appearances. While the postseason awards are out of his reach, the Nats will be content to get him back up to speed in time for what looks to be a first round playoff matchup against the Chicago Cubs.

Now, a little over a week before the Indians begin the defense of their American League pennant, Bauer is embroiled in further drone drama. He tweeted this afternoon that his drone “IronMan” has been stolen. He has implored the public for Iron Man’s safe return so that he need not risk his pinky finger with yet another October drone injury:

Hey. Hey Clague Park drone thief. Please return IronMan to me in a timely manner or you will force me to build a new companion!😤#SaveMyPinky